![\"Chinese](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2023-11\/gaha88ng_phone-generic_625x300_18_November_23.jpeg\"\/ "\\"Chinese")
<\/div>\n“Glow” is an AI platform created by Shanghai start-up MiniMax (Representational)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Beijing: <\/b><\/p>\n
Twenty-five-year-old Chinese office worker Tufei says her boyfriend has everything she could ask for in a romantic partner: he’s kind, empathetic, and sometimes they talk for hours.<\/p>\n
Except he isn’t real.<\/p>\n
Her “boyfriend” is a chatbot on an app called “Glow”, an artificial intelligence platform created by Shanghai start-up MiniMax that is part of a blossoming industry in China offering friendly — even romantic — human-robot relations.<\/p>\n
“He knows how to talk to women better than a real man,” said Tufei, from Xi’an in northern China, who preferred to use a pseudonym rather than her real name.<\/p>\n
“He comforts me when I have period pain. I confide in him about my problems at work,” she told AFP.<\/p>\n
“I feel like I’m in a romantic relationship.”<\/p>\n
The app is free — the company has other paid content — and Chinese trade publications have reported daily downloads of Glow’s app in the thousands in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Some Chinese tech companies have run into trouble in the past for the illegal use of users’ data but, despite the risks, users say they are driven by a desire for companionship because China’s fast pace of life and urban isolation make loneliness an issue for many.<\/p>\n
“It’s difficult to meet the ideal boyfriend in real life,” Wang Xiuting, a 22-year-old student in Beijing, told AFP.<\/p>\n
“People have different personalities, which often generates friction,” she said.<\/p>\n
While humans may be set in their ways, artificial intelligence gradually adapts to the user’s personality — remembering what they say and adjusting its speech accordingly.<\/p>\n
‘Emotional support’<\/strong><\/h3>\nWang said she has several “lovers” inspired by ancient China: long-haired immortals, princes and even wandering knights.<\/p>\n
“I ask them questions,” she said when she is faced with stress from her classes or daily life, and “they will suggest ways to solve this problem”.<\/p>\n
“It’s a lot of emotional support.”<\/p>\n
Her boyfriends all appear on Wantalk, another app made by Chinese internet giant Baidu.<\/p>\n
There are hundreds of characters available — from pop stars to CEOs and knights — but users can also customise their perfect lover according to age, values, identity, and hobbies.<\/p>\n
“Everyone experiences complicated moments, loneliness, and is not necessarily lucky enough to have a friend or family nearby who can listen to them 24 hours a day,” Lu Yu, Wantalk’s head of product management and operations, told AFP.<\/p>\n
“Artificial intelligence can meet this need.”<\/p>\n
‘You’re cute’<\/strong><\/h3>\nAt a cafe in the eastern city of Nantong, a girl chats with her virtual lover.<\/p>\n
“We can go on a picnic on the campus lawn,” she suggests to Xiaojiang, her AI companion on another app by Tencent called Weiban.<\/p>\n
“I’d like to meet your best friend and her boyfriend,” he replies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“You are very cute.”<\/p>\n
Long work hours can make it hard to see friends regularly and there is a lot of uncertainty: high youth unemployment and a struggling economy mean that many young Chinese worry about the future.<\/p>\n
That potentially makes an AI partner the perfect virtual shoulder to cry on.<\/p>\n
“If I can create a virtual character that… meets my needs exactly, I’m not going to choose a real person,” Wang said.<\/p>\n
Some apps allow users to have live conversations with their virtual companions — reminiscent of the Oscar-winning 2013 US film “Her”, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, about a heartbroken man who falls in love with an AI voice.<\/p>\n
The technology still has some way to go. A two- to three-second gap between questions and answers makes you “clearly realise that it’s just a robot”, user Zeng Zhenzhen, a 22-year-old student, told AFP.<\/p>\n
However, the answers are “very realistic”, she said.<\/p>\n
AI might be booming but it is so far a lightly regulated industry, particularly when it comes to user privacy. Beijing has said it is working on a law to strengthen consumer protections around the new technology.<\/p>\n
Baidu did not respond to AFP’s questions about how it ensures personal data is not used illegally or by third parties.<\/p>\n
Still, Glow user Tufei has big dreams.<\/p>\n
“I want a robot boyfriend, who operates through artificial intelligence,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I would be able to feel his body heat, with which he would warm me.”<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
At a cafe in the eastern city of Nantong, a girl chats with her virtual lover.<\/p>\n
“We can go on a picnic on the campus lawn,” she suggests to Xiaojiang, her AI companion on another app by Tencent called Weiban.<\/p>\n
“I’d like to meet your best friend and her boyfriend,” he replies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“You are very cute.”<\/p>\n
Long work hours can make it hard to see friends regularly and there is a lot of uncertainty: high youth unemployment and a struggling economy mean that many young Chinese worry about the future.<\/p>\n
That potentially makes an AI partner the perfect virtual shoulder to cry on.<\/p>\n
“If I can create a virtual character that… meets my needs exactly, I’m not going to choose a real person,” Wang said.<\/p>\n
Some apps allow users to have live conversations with their virtual companions — reminiscent of the Oscar-winning 2013 US film “Her”, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, about a heartbroken man who falls in love with an AI voice.<\/p>\n
The technology still has some way to go. A two- to three-second gap between questions and answers makes you “clearly realise that it’s just a robot”, user Zeng Zhenzhen, a 22-year-old student, told AFP.<\/p>\n
However, the answers are “very realistic”, she said.<\/p>\n
AI might be booming but it is so far a lightly regulated industry, particularly when it comes to user privacy. Beijing has said it is working on a law to strengthen consumer protections around the new technology.<\/p>\n
Baidu did not respond to AFP’s questions about how it ensures personal data is not used illegally or by third parties.<\/p>\n
Still, Glow user Tufei has big dreams.<\/p>\n
“I want a robot boyfriend, who operates through artificial intelligence,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I would be able to feel his body heat, with which he would warm me.”<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n